Techstars Bangalore has announced the names of nine Indian startups for its 3rd cohort in India. The Techstars’ trademark mentorship-driven acceleration program will run virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each selected startup will get an investment of US$120,000.
Announcing the names of chosen start-ups Techstars Bangalore Managing Director Dhritiman Hui said, “It’s heartening to see how Indian founders are increasingly focusing more on IP, and building for global markets, and not just India. These only go to create better outcomes, sustainable business models, and more value creation for investors.”
Besides an investment of US$ 120,000, the program includes mentor madness sessions during which the startups connect with over 70 mentors from India and abroad. Among the mentors who chip in during the initial weeks include Priya Mohan of Venture Highway, Hari TN of Big Basket, and Vir Kashyap who co-founded Babajobs.
Building upon the success of Techstars’ 2019 and 2020 cohorts in India, the Techstars Bangalore search team met several hundred start-ups before selecting the nine startups focused on building proprietary software solutions for developed North American and European markets.
Techstars was equally keen to back entrepreneurs building affordable solutions for India and other emerging markets. Techstars’ massive global network is ideally set up to help both these sets of entrepreneurs.
The Techstars search team was amazed at how founders drove down product costs, often on shoestring budgets, where incumbents missed the opportunity. Almost all the start-ups struck out to secure business from around the world – highlighting that they were solving real problems.
This year the entire program is virtual and the Demo Day in early July 2021 is also slated to be a virtual event.
The nine chosen start-ups, in alphabetical order are: AfterShoot, which is creating the ‘Grammarly for Taking Photographs’ in a world where taking pictures has become zeitgeist for expressing oneself; Asanify, a Human Resources Platform that simplifies HR, Payroll and Salary payments for small businesses in emerging countries; Asvin Tech, which provides low-cost, high precision 3-D scanning solutions to dentists that are 10x cheaper and faster than competing 3-D scanners; CogniSaaS, which aims to reduce churn in the enterprise SaaS industry by helping enterprise SaaS cross-functional teams to collaborate and deliver maximum value; and CustomerGlu a low code platform that helps companies solve the $400 Bn ‘lost revenue’ opportunity by creating interactive workflows that drive user stickiness.
Dara.network is creating the world’s finest alumni engagement platform that allows alumni to engage with fellow alumni from their class, their school, and ultimately across schools; EasyLokal, a translation solution enables businesses to localize mobile apps and websites easily and quickly using its cloud-based software tools; General Systems provides robotic solutions for the multi-billion-dollar global construction industry, starting with a robotic arm that builds walls using 50 percent fewer labor force and 10 percent lower material costs and Xook, that makes robotic food kiosks for office canteens, college, university campuses, and apartment complexes, and is integrating with office canteen operators and apartment complexes to provide their first kiosks.
While Techstars Bangalore alumni founders — Rephrase and Redwing — made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 for 2021, the 2019 acceleration batch alumni Nira Finance raised US$3.1 million, Rephrase.ai raised a round of US$1.5 million led by Lightspeed partners, and the 2020 batch alumni Lancify raised an Angel round of US$300,000.
Techstars is a worldwide network and seed accelerator that connects entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and corporations to fuel investment and innovation. Founded in 2006 in Boulder, Colorado, the American seed accelerator has accepted 2,439 companies into its programs with a combined market capitalization of US$ 43.3 billion. These companies have received US$ 14.1 billion of funding.
Each year, Techstars chooses over 500 early-stage companies to join dozens of mentorship-driven accelerators where less than one percent of applicants are accepted. Techstars provides accelerator portfolio companies with access to financial, human, and intellectual capital to fuel the success of their business that has resulted in 85.8 percent of the startups that are active or have got acquired.
Upon acceptance to a Techstars mentorship-driven accelerator, every company is offered a total investment of US$ 120,000.
Techstars operates the Techstars mentorship-driven Accelerator and Techstars Startup Week.
Categories: Accelerators
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